Falklands veteran’s unique take on conflict

Click on the images below to see a large version in a new window. Note: there is some strong language in the cartoons.

Will Kevans’ graphic account, entitled My Life in Pieces, which he has self-published, has already sold over 1,000 copies and been included in the Imperial War Museum’s archives.

The 52-year-old games designer and cartoonist, who’s also a singer-songwriter, has dedicated the book to the thirty two men from his battalion who were killed aboard the RFA Sir Galahad when it was hit by Argentine jets near Bluff Cove on 8th June 1982.

Its classic comic strip style format offers a highly original take on the war, documenting “the story of a group of Welsh Guards thrown into the unknown”.

From detailing the attack on the Sir Galahad and its bloody aftermath to the remarkable moment when scores of Argentinian prisoners joined a Welsh Guardsman in an impromptu rendition of Queen’s ‘We Will Rock You’, the cartoons provide a poignant and fascinating glimpse into the lives of the young British soldiers who went to war 33 years ago.

Mr Kevans says he intended originally to write a book about his musical career, but changed tack when it became clear to him how much of his music was rooted in his Falklands experience.

“A lot of the actual emotional input I put into the melody of my music comes from the pain or a way of dissipating my inner feelings about what happened to us in the Falklands,” he said.

Mike Hermanis, a Falklands veteran who served in the same battalion as Will Kevans, has described it as a “fabulous” book which “takes the rough edge off” their experiences.

Hermanis, who was on the Sir Galahad when it was hit, says this “softer” approach has enabled him to engage his eight-year-old daughter in the story of the conflict.

Will Kevans says he hopes one day to make the book into an animated film.